State House leaders are in contention over efforts to build a new jail in Patrick County.

Last week, the House of Delegates rejected Gov. Tim Kaine’s proposed amendment to exempt Patrick County from a statewide moratorium on jail construction. After House Minority Leader Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Collinsville, called the 43-53 party line vote “entirely political” in an article published in Sunday’s Martinsville Bulletin, Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, responded Monday with a strongly worded statement of his own.

According to Griffith, the House was not given all the necessary information about conditions at the jail. Also, the language of the original amendment underwent several revisions, and Griffith said the changes did not make it clear that Patrick County wanted to study its own facility instead of pursuing a regional one with Henry County and Martinsville.

“I am not sure why Del. Armstrong chose to not submit legislation for a stand-alone jail and instead submitted budget language with the specific intent of including Patrick County in the regional jail,” Griffith said.

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